The sea is bright tonight, under the Greater Moon. Somewhere on the shores of the Inland Sea, the Sarronny grubbers are dancing and the cadets watching them in fascination. The Great Council are considering the evidence our agents have submitted to them. Martisset the Elder, in retirement on the Greater Island, no doubt is composing poems to the Moons, or perhaps to the stars.

I am standing in the deep shadow of the villa, on the side where no lights reach the sea. Overhead stretches the Road of the Stars, the trace of the galaxy into whose heart we look.

So many worlds, so many possibilities: an empire spanning the stars — that would be something to aspire to, and then to wish for it as well a seemly duration. All things perish and all things pass away, but it will be millennia before that happens, if we set the foundations firmly; behind the picket-line of the Outposts, a rich prize awaits us.

***

The question is “One last moment, in great detail.” From character interview with Temn, the villain-in-chief of Inside the Jump (NaNo 2013). Weekend Writing Warriors offers eight-sentence excerpts from a variety of writers; see the other excerpts here.